Letting everyone know that they’re checking things out.
Often they come through, early to mid-January. Sometimes they stay and raise a family other times they move on to other areas.
Hoping there will be Eastern Bluebirds (Sialia sialis) here for a while.
This afternoon’s sun, lighting up the marcescent leaves of an American Beech (Fagus grandifolia).
Trees that have marcescent leaves are trees that keep their leaves until spring when new leaves begin to grow and push the old leaves off and to the ground. It is still uncertain why this happens. There are thoughts though, including that the falling leaves create a new layer of mulch with nutrients for growth just in time for a new season. Or that those falling leaves help keep moisture in the soil, again for the new growing season.
Other thoughts concern animals that are around the marcescent leaves. Birds benefit from protection that the leaves provide from cold winter winds. Or could it be that marcescent leaves are protecting the tempting, tender, and nutritious buds and twigs that could be consumed by deer.
Whatever the reason that this occurs, I certainly enjoy finding these leaves still on trees here in the woods on my mountain.
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There’s a rock wall, a tenth of a mile long, that parallels the lane approaching my cabin. Many, many years ago it was created to help the land above become a bit more level, for growing corn. Now all these years later those rocks have a remarkable amount of lichen growing on them. The brilliant yellow or yellow-green colored lichen on the rocks, Sulphur Dust Lichen (Chrysothrix chlorina).
This lichen is sometimes used for dyeing. Its texture, soft and powdery. A touch against it will easily leave a mark. It generally grows in shady areas, most often on rocks and in rare occasions on the bark of trees.
That brilliant yellow makes this lichen easily spotted. That is, if you’re paying attention to what’s around you. So much out there to notice, no matter the season.
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Today’s weather, not quite what I was hoping for. Yes, this morning there was first sleet, then freezing rain. But in what seemed like the blink of an eye it was gone. Turned to just rain. Actually it did happen more slowly than that, but by mid-afternoon the winter glam and glitter was gone.
Ah well. We’ve got nearly the whole winter to look forward to for that glam and glitter. I will be patient.
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Gardens in winter can be a source of food for many animals. Let those seedheads stay for the birds to enjoy. This is a male Goldfinch (Spinus tristis) in his winter attire.
Goldfinch are here year ’round. They come to my feeders for the black oil sunflower seeds that I put out, but they also come to my gardens to dine on the seadheads that are left from last summer’s blooms.
In this case, this fellow is enjoying the seeds of Eastern Coneflower (Rudbeckia fulgida).
Seeds to help keep the birds warm.
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Seeing movement some distance from me, I focused my attention on what was going on. Turns out it’s a male Downy Woodpecker (Picoides pubescens) visiting me today.
This is the smallest woodpecker in North America. One that I often see, all year long. They’re fascinating and having them here year ’round makes me feel quite fortunate.
Seeing this one reminds me that I need to get busy and whip up some suet for them. They eat insects, and acorns, grains and berries. But they are particularly attracted to suet at my feeders. I haven’t put any out in quite some time.
Suet at the feeder will mean seeing these little woodpeckers more frequently. Perfect!
So long as I’ve got the feeder filled, this is one of the birds that shows up during the winter. Actually there are a few of them that come to get the black oil sunflower seeds. The Dark-eyed Junco (Junco hyemalis). This is one that showed up on Christmas Day to get its portrait captured in pixels.
They love seeds and are not particular about the type. They’ll eat black oil sunflower seeds (I put out the hulled seeds), safflower seeds, Nyger seeds, cracked corn, peanut hearts, millet, oats, or milo. They’ll eat from a platform feeder, or enjoy seeds that are scattered on the ground. When available, they’ll eat insects too.
These Juncos measure in from the tip of the bill to the tip of the tail at about 6 inches in length.
I’ll enjoy these little birds while they’re here during the winter, and as the weather warms, I’ll look forward to their return.
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Most of New Year’s Day, snow and graupel fell from the sky. Granddaughter and I were totally pleased to see it. If anything would stick, it would be the second snowfall of the winter season. The first was December 10th when the mountain received 2.75 gorgeous inches.
As graupel falls, it isn’t necessarily obvious that it is anything other than snow. If you’re able to look at it closely, it looks a bit like tiny fluffy snowballs rather than the enchanting crystals of snow.
Graupel has a fascinating way of happening. Sometimes if conditions are just right those enchanting snow crystals will run into supercooled water droplets. As the snow touches the supercooled water droplets, those droplets will freeze onto the snow crystal. Falling through the sky the snow crystals will continue to collect supercooled water until one cannot identify the crystal any longer and this combination becomes ball-like, and is known as graupel.
As afternoon turned into night, there was a mere dusting of snow. No snow on the lane. Snow in the gardens, such as the photo above, with what is left of the leaves of iris providing a place for things such as larvae of butterflies to hunker down for the winter while waiting for spring to arrive.
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One showed up this morning. The first day of 2024. I always anticipate something special showing up on important days. This was that special something, a Hermit Thrush (Catharus guttatus). Not arriving for the seeds at the feeder, they’re not interested in that, but arriving to get a splash in the birdbath.
And oh the beautiful music they make. Mnemonics, basically means us humans putting words to the songs of birds to assist our memory. To help tell one bird song from another. In this case the Hermit Thrush is reportedly saying, “veer-veer-veer-veer; Why don’tcha come to me?; Here I am right near you”. A lot to remember but if you can get it into your brain, it’s going to help. A lovely and enchanting song.
Glad I was paying attention this morning to see its visit. Otherwise the day would have gone by with nothing special to note.
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Merriest of best wishes,
For a marvelous New Year,
And to all a good night!